Dearly Beloved
by Spunkz the wacked out Spaz
Summary: Harry, Hermione and Ron take it upon themselves to work out the key to the mysterious chain of events that has been happening at Hogwarts recently. However, it seems that this is going to be more than an average Cluedo game...
1. Hesitation and Snape's Anxiety

Disclaimer: I disown everything, so there!  
  
Professor Lupin was late into the Defence Against the Dark Arts lesson, so the third-year Gryffindors took out their books and waited. Professor Lupin walked into the classroom no less than five minutes late, however half way through the door he stopped. He was rigid and staring fixedly at Harry - or rather, Harry's desk with a strange faraway look in his eyes. Harry was beginning to feel uncomfortable when Lupin shifted his gaze across the rest of the class as though nothing had happened. They spent the lesson concentrating on Boggarts, but Harry couldn't shake of the feeling he'd got upon seeing the mysterious light in his teacher's eyes as he looked at his desk.  
  
Later that day, however, Hermione was waiting outside the staffroom for Professor Flitwick. She was just about to knock when the conversation from within stopped her hand.  
  
"My condolences, Minerva." There was no mistaking that sardonic voice; that sarcastic tone. Snape was in there. "I merely meant that I see no reason why Lupin should care to return to Hogwarts! Especially after what happened."  
  
"Remus has plenty of reasons to come back, Severus, and well you know it!" The strict voice of Professor McGonagall rung into Hermione's ears.  
  
"I fail to see what reason should beckon enough for him to return to the very site of, well, of that. What happened is enough to traumatize anyone, but with the relationship he had with it."  
  
"I agree, Severus. Let's not speak of this again."  
  
"Fine. I have some essays to grade. Excuse me." Snape said, announcing his departure. He must have been nearer the door than Hermione had realised, because it was suddenly thrown open and the ill-tempered Potions Master stared at her in a mixture of shock and suspicion.  
  
"I-I'm sorry sir." Hermione stammered. "Could you give this to Professor Flitwick, I-" Mid-sentence, Snape grabbed her and dragged her inside, slamming the door after him. He sat her down on a chair. McGonagall was hovering in the background and Snape himself was pale. There was an anxiety reflected in his usually deadened black eyes that Hermione had never seen before.  
  
"What - did - you - hear?" He hissed at her, the impatience in his voice betraying his own worry and mental agony. "I swear, Granger, that conversation was of no importance to you! Forget you ever heard it! Now, go back to your dormitory, and don't let me catch you eavesdropping again!" He ushered her hastily out of the room.  
  
As she walked to Gryffindor Tower, Hermione found herself thinking about something else rather than the mysterious chain of events she had just witnessed.  
  
No points off. Amazing. 


	2. The Case of the School Records

Determined to know just what 'The Incident' was, and why Snape was so agitated, the three friends had taken desperate measures.  
  
Ron had broken in to Dumbledore's office.  
  
After unlocking the heavily charmed-against-spells door with a hairpin, and dropping the now - useless disfigured object on the floor, he was looking through the files that recorded the generations of young wizards at Hogwarts.  
  
*Lorens, Loratal, Lotus, Lozeck, 'Lu' ...Luna...LuSape...LuSape? No, I've gone too far. Hang on.... A - hah!*  
  
Ron removed the file labelled 'Lupin' before sitting down in a chair ready to read. Suddenly his heart gave a jolt - footsteps! He slammed the drawer shut, tucked the file up his jumper, slipped on the invisibility cloak and made his way back up to Gryffindor Tower.  
  
"Well?" asked Harry impatiently as Ron burst panting into the common room. In response, Ron dropped the file into Hermione's lap. Hermione opened the file.  
  
"Look!" She cried in alarm. "Two folders! One of them's labelled Remus Lupin and the other one Canis Lupin. Which one's the teacher?"  
  
"Must be Remus." Said Harry, frowning. "It said 'Professor R J Lupin' on his case, didn't it? Unless 'Canis' begins with an 'R'" He added, smiling. Hermione read the separate year reports.  
  
"Canis is one year younger than Remus." She said, before turning to Canis' folder. "WHAT??? NO WAY!"  
  
"What is it?"  
  
"Canis' report stops in his second year!"  
  
"So?"  
  
"So! So that means he never came back for third year! He wasn't expelled, he disappeared!"  
  
A chilled silence descended on the group before Hermione said in a small voice:  
  
"I think we've found our 'Incident'."  
  
When the other two had departed for bed, Hermione re-read the information about Remus' first year. There had been something there that the others wouldn't understand; that the others wouldn't want to understand. Her eyes rested at the end of the first paragraph.  
  
"...sorted into Gryffindor after long pause by the Hat. Seems quite bright which makes up for his being a lycanthrope..."  
  
Hermione's throat was dry with fear. She was beginning to learn more than she wanted to about the mild, kind Professor R J Lupin. 


	3. POV Lupin I Theft

I arrived to teach at Hogwarts about a week ago. For my first lesson, which was with the Gryffindor third - years, I had planned a little surprise: Boggarts. However, when I walked in to that classroom, the allocated DADA classroom, I saw the very thing that I had been hoping to avoid; the thing that had tormented me for so long. The memory of what happened still scares me. I hope to God that I never have to think about it again! Later the next day, the Headmaster called me to his office to have a word with me.  
  
"Remus, have you seen your old school records? They seem to have disappeared." Albus told me gravely.  
  
"I heard footsteps up here last night." The voice of Severus shocked me a little; he had been lurking in a shadowed corner and I hadn't noticed him. " I ran up here but they were gone. It's been stolen."  
  
"Any clues why anyone would want to steal my profile?" I asked as calmly as I could, knowing a very good reason for someone to steal it.  
  
"Potter, Weasley and Granger." Severus said instantly. "I caught Granger eavesdropping while Minerva and I were discussing...well, discussing it."  
  
"Don't jump to conclusions, Severus. It can't have been students. This room is protected by a magic far greater than any student is able to penetrate." Albus insisted.  
  
Severus, who was holding a folder, threw it down on the floor in impatience and frustration and stormed out of the room. I picked up the file as Albus followed, no doubt to try and calm him down before lessons so the students would manage to not lose too many house points, and walked back to my quarters.  
  
When I got there, I checked the name on the folder: Artemisa Katz. I remembered her. Barely, I have to admit, but I remembered her. She had been in the year below me, my brother's year. They were inseparable. She was the twins' younger sister. I remembered the twins as well. Rene and Justine Katz. Quite unlike Fred and George Weasley, they looked nothing like each other, and hated each other with a fiery passion, so it was hard to tell that they were twins.  
  
Justine, like Artemisa, had been a Gryffindor and I was good friends with her, even when Sirius told her about my relationship with wolves, the bastard. Some people even went to the extent that we were going out, and that may well have been. Justine, like me, had been a Chaser on the Quidditch team, and scored many goals.  
  
Rene, well, Rene was different. She was a solitary Slytherin, though when not lurking alone in a corner (a bit like Severus does nowadays) she was often talking to none other than Severus. She never spoke to anyone else apart from to trade insults or answer questions in class. She, too, played Quidditch, though with another of the many differences to her twin, she was stronger rather than faster, the perfect build of a Beater. A similarity, however, was that she shared that position with Severus, also a Beater, and I shared my position with Justine. Funny the way how fate works; Artemisa was never on the Quidditch team.  
  
I made a mental note to visit Artemisa over Christmas and took her file back to Albus' office. On coming out, I heard a crack and realised I trodden on something outside the door. I looked closely at it to identify it and suddenly realised with a sinking stomach and a sickening feeling what it was.  
  
A bent hairpin. 


	4. The Terror of the Grounds

The next morning found Harry and Hermione walking down to breakfast. Ron had run back to the dorms, yelling obscenities about the cat Crookshanks.  
  
"I hope Ron doesn't do anything to him!" groaned Hermione anxiously.  
  
"Hmmm." Was all Harry said, trying to stay neutral.  
  
"Are you siding with Ron or me?" Hermione asked him suspiciously.  
  
"Well, actually I'm trying my hardest to -WHOAH!" Harry had tripped and fallen heavily. He looked up to see what had tripped him and to his surpries, it was Pansy Parkinson, the Slytherin girl. She was in no fit state to apologise; her face was torn and bloody and she had a black eye. She was sobbing softly into her robes and had seemingly unnoticed that she was tripping Gryffindors up. Harry gave her a poke and she looked up, startled.  
  
"Pot - Harry, help..." She whispered. Hermione knelt closer and comforted her.  
  
"Hush, Pansy, what's wrong?"  
  
"I was serving detention with Hagrid," she moaned, last night - on the grounds, and he went off to get something and - and - it was horrible!" She dissolved into another fit of uncontrollable sobbing. Harry and Hermione glanced at each other before coaxing Pansy to get a hold of herself. She finally gained enough control to continue.  
  
"A cloaked man ran out of the forest. I didn't see him until it was too late, and he dragged me off into the forest. I - I screamed but he punched me in the eye and told me he'd kill me if I made a noise so I fell silent. He attacked me with a little penknife until I was paralysed with fear and pain and then - and then -" she lowered her small voice to a whisper. " - and then he raped me" Again she started crying for the memory of it. Harry and Hermione looked at each other, mortified.  
  
"Shit!" Harry whispered.  
  
"Look, here's Professor Lupin." Said Hermione out loud, ignoring the thoughts rushing through her head.  
  
"What's wrong, Pansy?" asked taciturn Professor Lupin. Pansy was still weeping so Hermione answered for her.  
  
"She was beaten up and raped last night in the forest." She explained. Lupin frowned and conjured up a stretcher.  
  
"I'll take care of this. You go down to breakfast. I'll speak to the headmaster." He said, in the short, hesitant tones he used when he was desperately trying to think up an answer. He walked off with Pansy floating behind him on the stretcher. At that moment, Ron ran up to them.  
  
"Bloody cat, after Scabbers again. What's up with Parkinson?"  
  
"She was raped on the grounds last night." Replied Harry. Hermione sighed.  
  
"This year is promising to be a complicated one indeed. It's only our third year. We shouldn't be put through this but we have been, and I am going to try and help!"  
  
The others silently agreed and they made their way down to breakfast, heads bowed for Pansy. 


	5. Death In The Forest

A week or so after the rape of Pansy, Harry was given a detention by Snape because he had lost his temper and thrown a jar of whole pickled frog spleens at him. Harry stayed behind after the lesson while Snape, who seemed quite edgy, outlined his detention.  
  
"Here. Nine o'clock. Now get out of my sight!"  
  
Dinner, however, passed quickly. Too quickly for Harry's liking. In no time at all he was back in the dungeons scrubbing desks clean while Snape sat at his desk, marking essays and muttering to himself. Harry couldn't hear all he was saying, although he caught occasional snippets like:  
  
"...must have been possessed...didn't mean to kill her...they'll find out soon... the rape was bad enough...stupid, stupid, stupid!" and similar curses. Naturally, this aroused Harry's suspicions and he listened closer, though Snape seemed to notice and fell silent. About ten minutes later a terrified first-year ran in screaming.  
  
"Help! Help! Murder! Murder!" Harry and Snape were both startled by her high-pitched squeals, though Harry registered with interest the look of sheer panic on Snape's face.  
  
  
  
Out in the forest, Snape and Harry joined with what seemed like the rest of the school crowding round a body. It was hideously mutilated but barely recognisable as Millicent Bulstrode. Dumbledore, who was gravely examining the corpse, stated flatly that the killing curse had been used and there were no leads to who the killer may possibly be.  
  
  
  
No one saw the picture of immense relief on Snape's usually deadened features as they headed back inside.  
  
Except Harry. 


	6. Snape's Confession

Harry decided to put his suspicions of Snape to the back of his mind for the time being, as he needed to concentrate on his studies. It wasn't until two weeks later that the incidents in the forest came rushing back into full focus.  
  
Harry, Hermione and Ron were in a Care of Magical Creatures lesson with Hagrid, learning about Wurms. Hagrid himself had some baby Wurms, they looked like dragons with no legs and no wings, but the things were harmless. It was a bit like an interesting, scaly, colourful version of a Flobberworm.  
  
The three Gryffindors were crowded round their Wurm, studying its teeth, when they heard three things from the forest: A man's cry, a shrill scream and a heavy thud.  
  
"What in the name o' flamin' horseradishes was tha'?" Hagrid asked, surprised. Everyone looked towards the forest. A cloaked figure limped out, looked cautiously around and then broke into a panicked, stumbling run.  
  
There were bloodstains down the front of the cloak. The figure was carrying a knife. There was blood on the knife.  
  
Hagrid took Ron, who was a fast runner, and sprinted towards this stranger, with Harry and Hermione close behind. The figure stopped still, regaining breath, and Hagrid pounced, landing the man a powerful punch to the side of the head.  
  
The cloaked person dropped like a stone and the hood came loose, exposing the bloodless face of Severus Snape.  
  
Hermione examined the unconscious man, pointing towards the numerous bleeding cuts on his face, the nasty looking spread of blood around his left ankle and then indicating the bloodstained knife.  
  
Harry had already formed a conclusion.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Hospital Wing~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
It was a good half hour before Snape came round in the Hospital Wing, surrounded by Lupin, Dumbledore, Hagrid, Hermione, Ron and Harry. The knife lay on the table beside him. Dumbledore's eyes were like twin blue fires as he looked at his Potions Master.  
  
"Harry, will you please give your suspicions?" He asked, turning to the boy. Harry nodded.  
  
"Well, Pansy said that a cloaked man had... had... attacked her and when I was in detention with Professor Snape, he was muttering something about the 'rape being bad enough, shouldn't have killed her.' And when that first year came running in screaming about murder, Professor Snape looked panicked, like he had been discovered. But when you said that the identity of the murderer was unknown, he looked very relieved, as though he was glad he had not been exposed."  
  
Snape looked shocked and confused. Hermione's hands flew to her mouth and she gasped. Dumbledore peered over the top of his glasses at Snape, an accusing expression on his face.  
  
"Severus, the evidence does point towards you. Is this true?" He asked gravely. All eyes were on Snape as he sighed and ran a hand across his scarred face.  
  
"In retrospect, I suppose I have been acting suspiciously in recent weeks, but I couldn't risk anyone finding out.  
  
"The Potions Supplies had been running quite low, and I reordered from the Apothecary in Hogsmeade, but they didn't have many of the less-used ingredients. I ordered from that Apothecary in Diagon Alley and obtained all but one substance. You see, the prices they charged for it were abominably high. I couldn't afford it. At 15 Galleons for a gram of Unicorn Tail Hair, I would not be able to eat during the holidays. The Headmaster was kind enough to pay me for this year in advance so I could afford the extra Potions Ingredients. Unfortunately, I am in the middle of a money crisis, with no more than 20 Galleons to my name.  
  
"Unicorn Tail Hair is widely used in Potions included in the Curriculum for OWLs. I didn't tell the Headmaster of my financial troubles. Maybe I should have done, but I was too proud. I thought I could sort it out myself.  
  
"There are plenty of Unicorns in the forest, September is the month of foal- birth, especially in this area. The foals are easy. I used a sharp Shrivelfig Knife to cut some hairs off each Unicorn I came across. It was a tricky business, as I could not let the Unicorn bleed and I didn't want to agitate them.  
  
"All was going fine and the Potions Stores were replenishing until two weeks ago. Then it all fell apart. I was out one evening, the evening before I gave Potter a detention.  
  
"I came across an injured Unicorn. It was enraged and trampling everything in sight. It was a young mare and her dead foal was nearby. Maybe that was why she was so angry. I tried to back away but she had seen my knife and came towards me at breakneck speed. I fell over a root and in an instant she was on top of me, goring me with her horn. I couldn't think clear. All I could see was my own blood spattered everywhere.  
  
"Without any clear idea of what I was doing, I reached for my knife and tried to fend her off. She came back with even more determination and I was sure she was going to kill me. In a simultaneous decision I thrust upwards with the blade and the next thing I knew, the injured Unicorn fell on top of me. My vision was blurred and I was terrified. I stabbed wildly with the knife before I was so weak I could not move my arm.  
  
"I passed in and out of consciousness. While the Unicorn had been attacking me, I had been in great pain and was interested only in getting away alive. With my dead opponent lying on top of me, though, I felt a great sense to just give up... to sleep... to let it all go and not worry about anything anymore, not to worry about where food was going to come from during the summer... Drifting in and out of consciousness was like a dream, the pain was gone. I felt sure it was going to end.  
  
"It didn't. I came dropping back down to reality with a thud. I realised what I had done. I cleaned myself up as best I could, and tried to hide the wounds that mare had inflicted on me before burying both Unicorns and heading to the school.  
  
"I should have told you, Headmaster, but I panicked. I thought I might lose my job. If you fired me then I would have not got any money and would have become a beggar starving on the street before Christmas.  
  
"But I had a horrible recollection of it that night and was terribly distraught in the morning. I tried to ease myself of by giving Potter a detention but by 9 I was in a state of nervous collapse. What if anyone found out? What if I DID lose my job? The possibilities were rushing through my mind. Killing a Unicorn is counted as murder.  
  
"Then my fears were confirmed. That first - year prat Gryffindor Norton came running in screaming that there had been a murder. I thought I had been discovered. I managed not to lose my head completely, but I think maybe my panic showed on my face.  
  
"When I discovered that it wasn't my victim that had been discovered, I was so relieved. I should have felt bad for Bulstrode but her father had murdered many a Muggle in his time so I felt she had it coming.  
  
"This morning I went out to get some more tail hair. I was doing quite well when I stumbled into a fully grown stallion Unicorn. It seemed angry. It wasn't hurt so I was at a loss to what had bitten it. Then I realised. Unicorns mate for life. It was the injured mare's mate.  
  
"It charged without warning. I spun to one side to try and dodge, but slipped on some wet rock. I fell heavily on the knife, which was from then on embedded in my side. The Unicorn leapt and its horn made contact with my ankle. I heard the snap and felt a dull pain but I couldn't do anything about it. The Unicorn continued attacking me until I could not move without disturbing some injury. So I lay still and it assumed I was dead. It left.  
  
"It was then I noticed how much I was bleeding. There was blood from my broken ankle, blood from my chest, blood from my face, blood from my side... I pulled the knife out and staggered to the fringe of the forest. I wasn't sure if the stallion would come back so I looked before running as best I could towards school.  
  
"I was nearly at the main gate when a big heavy unmoving object snuffed out my troubles for that time."  
  
"Ah...that would have been my hand, Professor. I didn't know it was you." Hagrid apologised.  
  
"It's my fault, I didn't realise I had a cloak on." Snape sighed, wincing as one of the cuts on his face bled afresh.  
  
Harry, however, was confused. Now that Snape was clear, who was it lurking in the forest raping and murdering the students who dared enter?  
  
Who was the next suspect? 


End file.
